The Dallas Stars would like to bolster their blueline and are looking for a top-pairing defenseman with term left on his contract.Stars GM Jim Nill does not appear interested in going after a rental player and has set his sights at least two players available on the trade block.

According to two separate league sources, the Stars are interested in Buffalo Sabres blueliner Christian Ehrhoff and Vancouver Canucks defenseman Alexander Edler.Both Ehrhoff and Edler have no-trade clauses and would have to sign off on any deal their teams try to complete.

Ehrhoff has already submitted a list of eight teams he would not accept a move to.

One league source told TFP the Stars might not be in the running for Edler, despite their interest, as the Canucks' asking price may be too high for their liking.

I wonder if any deal we make with Washington might include a cap swap of Booth for Erat. Straight up one for one. Both teams just taking a chance that a change of scenery will give the players a bit of a reset, and if that fails then compliance buyout and the Caps save $250K.

I also read a scouting report on Kuznetsov that has me less interested than I was about 5 minutes ago. He's pegged as being moody and also not 100% sure about leaving Russia and coming over to the NHL. I also don't like that he's already 21 years old and only 172 lbs.

One would think that playing on a legitimate SC contender would motivate one to play half decent so not to get dumped for a bag of pucks. Especially as one of the leaders of the team (Getzlaf) actually advocated on your behalf to bring you in.